


Deception and Perfection

by Sky_Girls



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fake Dating, PR stunt, i dont even know if im honest, i just need more drinny in my life, marketing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:00:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20315929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_Girls/pseuds/Sky_Girls
Summary: After her break up with The Boy Who Lived, Ginny Weasley can't get the press to focus on what is really important, her career. With the new season approaching she is desperate enough to try something desperate: Pretending to date Draco Malfoy, of all people, to try and sway the press into a territory she will have full control of.Or that's what she thinks.





	1. The line between madness and genius

**Author's Note:**

> Soo I've been reading drinny fics for a looong time, and finally caved in to write my own with my favorite trope on the world aka fake dating. I'm gonna ask you to have in mind that I'm by no means british, nor do I live any close to an english speaking country so there are some things that might not be perfectly correct regarding grammar, punctuation or slang, if so you are free to kindly point these out to me. Anyway I hope you guys like this

Ginny Weasley is not a stranger to awkwardness, she is the youngest of seven siblings and even if most of the time she was an spectator or instigator to the awkwardness of someone else, she lived through her fair amount of awkward moments living on her quite small and cramped home. Usually she doesn’t quite care about them, but most of those she does care about deeply tend to have something in common. That something being Harry Potter, the bloody Boy-Who-Lived, or as she has been thinking of him lately: The-Man-She-Would-Consider-Murdering. 

It’s not just the fact that she is mad at him because of the break he decided they needed to take, it’s not just that she is hurt that he would do this after they have discussed marriage and bought a place together, it’s not even that she hates herself for accepting this ‘break’ and knowing he could waltz, out of rhythm like he does, right back into her life at any given moment and she would probably accept him happily, her arms open for him. It’s just that dealing with the whole thing has been a nightmare, between her family and the media she has been battling a shit ton of awkward,annoying and intrusive questions,and even more awkward and pitying glances.

She is definitely not winning this break up, she takes things at face value and right now he is acting like they have broken up no matter what he called it before, and she hates losing, but there’s nothing to do against it, because no matter the fact that her insides burn whenever she has seen a picture of him and some girl on The Prophet for the last three months she can’t bring herself to use this against him. Mostly because this isn’t really a game he is playing, he isn’t even really dating, or so Hermione reassures her, all these girls are just people he has been randomly spotted with having a talk or girls he has taken to some event or other because he hates going to these things alone. It still hurts, though, that he would decide they need ‘growing room’ as he had called it. That they need to discover themselves outside of each other and the life they’ve always had. It hurts because Ginny at her 22 years knows exactly who she is and what she wants,and the latter has always been Harry, it has always been clear as day. And it hurts that at some point it wasn’t for him anymore. 

She sighs and takes another sip of her fire whiskey, staring at the guy in front of her who thinks bringing up her ex will make him want to slip into his bed, maybe his strategy is to remind her how incredibly lonely, in all possible ways, she has been lately, make her reach for him out of desperation or something. But no matter how true it is, she would never sink low enough to have sex with a guy that makes her feel like maybe taking off her brain is needed to find his conversation stimulating. 

His hand finds his way to her exposed knee and she finds herself regretting her pick of dress as she looks around the room gauging how many reporters there are in the room. Maybe she could just hex him, being yelled at by the whole PR team of the Harpies wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to her these last couple months, nor would it be the first time. 

She smiles at the man in front of her, subtly reaching for her wand, that’s safely tucked away on the wand holster on her right thigh, but an arm falling around her shoulders stops her. 

“Ginny, love.” The man tells her as she takes a few deep breaths to calm down, she doesn’t recognize the voice, it has a familiar quality but she doesn’t know who he is and right now he is just another guy who is going to see the business end of her wand soon . “I’ve been looking everywhere for you,your publicist says _ Chaser Weekly _ and _ Which Broomstick? _ reporters have been looking everywhere for you, they can’t wait to talk with the star chaser of the season. “

She looks up and almost chokes when the face of Draco Malfoy, the slimy little ferret himself. 

“Play along,Weaslette.” He whispers on her ear. “Blaise is doing some clean up for one of your teammates who got pissed and sent me to get you.” 

She takes a deep breath and slaps a smile on her face that she hopes looks genuine. 

“Oh, thanks Draco.” Ginny says, standing up and adding in a saccharine tone. “It seems like I’m needed.” 

“I can look for you later.” The bloke says and Ginny just walks faster, Malfoy’s arm still around her shoulders for some reason. 

He guides her towards a far away table and she plops down in the most unladylike manner she can manage, which seems to be a personal offense to the Ferret. He sits in front of her and her eyes find his cold grey ones. She hasn’t seen much of Malfoy since he was exonerated thanks to Harry’s statement and she isn’t complaining about that. She knows a handful of things about him, the kind of things everyone knows. She knows that he is the owner of Malfoy corporation, that he is currently working as its CEO and as part of the research team to create new marketable potions that can be used in a wide range of areas. She knows that he avoids social gatherings as much as he can, the fact that his last name is nowhere near being respected again keeping him away from the public eye. And she knows that Blaise Zabini, the Harpies’ publicist, is his best friend. 

“I’m not thanking you.” She says finally, he just looks back at her impassive, one of his perfect eyebrows raised. 

“I wasn’t expecting you to.” He says in a bored drawl, as if he can't quite believe he is wasting his breath talking to her. “Someone with your upbringing surely doesn’t know the basics of etiquette” 

“I wouldn’t get all high and mighty, Malfoy.” She says with a shrug. “I’m not the one whose name is being dragged into the mud daily.” 

“At least my name is still relevant by itself and not only when it’s connected to Saint Potter.” He tells her, his face impassive, his lips pursed in a unreadable thin line and she wonders if maybe he has learnt some control since they been out of school. 

“Well it’s not like your name is relevant thanks to any you have done, is it?” She leans in closer to him resting her chin on her hands as she bats her eyelashes at him in a show of innocence. “You are still living under the shadow of daddy, never have done anything on your own.” 

“Like you would have done anything if you weren’t a Weasley or the girlfriend of the Boy-Who-Lived.” He leans in closer too, his voice low, his eyes shining in a dangerous way, his lips forming a threatening smile. But Ginny has never been one to back down in the face of danger, much less be scared of pathetic slimy gits. “Or what? Do you think you have talent?” 

She is about to answer him but the sound of a chair scraping the floor stops her. 

“Play nice, kids.” Zabini’s deep voice tells them as he sits next to Malfoy. “I don’t need anymore scandals tonight.” 

She rolls her eyes, chugging back the remainders of her firewhiskey and just seconds later the glass fills itself up again. 

“Why are all of you quidditch players alcoholics?” Zabini whines and Ginny just laughs at him taking a lengthy sip of her drink. 

“Why have you brought your boyfriend, Zabini?” She asks instead of answering his question and both men roll their eyes at her. 

“He needs to get out more.” Zabini says with a shrug. “He is becoming an old man. “

“Believe me, you are the only one who thinks he needs to show his face more.” She snorts, ignoring Malfoy’s cold glare. 

“I’m here on business, Weasley.” Malfoy corrects her. “Not that it’s any of your interest nor something your simple mind could understand.” 

“What business is this? Buying a dignity?” She asks innocent, not missing the snort Zabini tries to hide. 

“If I wanted to do that I wouldn’t be hanging out quidditch players, much less you, Weaslette.” 

“Can you two be civil for five minutes?” Blaise asks. “For me?” 

Ginny stays quiet and is surprised to see Malfoy’s comment stop too. She has been working with Blaise Zabini for a few years and has gotten to consider him an actual friend, and for the sake of that friendship she guesses she can stop taking her anger out on Malfoy. She scouts the room, Sarah and Gwen are chatting up the Puddlemere United beaters, Elena and Lucy clearly sneaking out to make out, and Ariana is nowhere in sight which means she is probably the one who got pissed and required Blaise to intervene. 

She has nowhere to go. This is going to be a fucking long night.

  
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Ginny doesn’t wake up the next day with a hangover which is a little miracle in and of itself, but that does not mean she awakens in a pleasant manner. No, because there a damned tapping on her window, the kind of incessant, loud tapping that can only an owl focused on it’s job. She wants to hex the blasted creature for a second but she gets herself out of bed and opens the door for Persephone, Blaise’s owl, who starts biting her fingers until she takes the letter before flying away without asking for any treats as usual. 

She huffs and the bird and opens the note to find one just one sentence in Blaise's tidy handwriting:

_Come to my house as soon as you can, don’t read the prophet before you do._

_ BZ._

Ginny frowns,her eyes going to the sky waiting for an owl bringing the prophet so she has an excuse to not listen to Blaise. It doesn’t happen so she puts on a sweater and some yoga pants before flooing to Zabini’s London apartment. 

She stumbles out of the fireplace, what expects her on Blaise’s living room making her trip over her own feet and end up on the floor, her quick chaser reflexes nowhere to be seen. 

“Can’t even go through a floo properly, Weasley?” Malfoy asks perched gracefully on a chair. “Did you never learn? Could your parents not afford the floo powders?” 

“Bugger off.” She says standing up as she dusts off nonexistent dust out of her already dirty clothes. “What the fuck are you doing here, Malfoy?”

“I asked him to come, luv.” Zabini appears on the room, a tray with tea and biscuits floating behind him. “I need to talk with both of you.” 

She looks at him suspicious. She has no idea what he could to tell them that would be of interest to both Malfoy and her, and why he wouldn’t want her to read The Prophet before he does. She doubts the insults they traded last night would be noteworthy enough to actually make it to the papers, the Malfoys and Weasleys hatred for each other could never count as news. 

“I need you both to keep an open mind for this, because this could be great for both of you and your public images.” 

“Would you hurry along, Zabini?” Malfoy asks annoyed. “I don’t have time for your shit.” 

“I hate agreeing with the ferret here.” Ginny mumbles. “But just spit it out already.” 

“Okay, I have a proposition for both of you.” Blaise says, a playful smile dancing at the corner of his lips as he summons the newspaper to him. “A proposition related to that.”

He puts The Daily Prophet on the table, placed perfectly so she and Malfoy can easily both the title and the picture of the front page. 

“What the fuck, Zabini?” She asks enraged. “How did you let this happen?” 

She stares at page in front of here but neither the image nor the words change. _ ‘Star-crossed lovers finally dare to face the wizarding world?’ _ can be read at the top of the page, two photos of her and Malfoy last night at the British and Irish Quidditch League Award Show, one shows them walking together, Malfoy’s arm around her shoulder, the other is of them sitting at a table, both of them leaning forward, their faces close to each other Ginny is smiling up at him, batting her eyelashes and a smile seems to tug at Malfoy’s lip. Under the photographs the numbers of the pages where the full article can be found on is specified, Ginny does not open the paper. The more she looks at the pictures the more she can see how those might be confused for intimate moments. The way they are leaning into each other, the intense gazes they are sharing could be easily misinterpreted for love instead of hatred without the context of the words being exchanged. 

“No,luv, you don’t get it, this is a good thing.” He says excited and Ginny is sure at this point he has been experimenting the kind of plants Neville doesn’t let her and Luna get too close to.

“How is this a good thing?” Malfoy’s voice sound exasperated and when she turns to him he finds him pinching the bridge of his nose, his elbow resting on his knee. Briefly she wonders how he manages to make even annoyance look elegant. “I don’t need to be associated to a Weasley. “

“But you do, mate.” Blaise deadpans. “The Weasley family is one of the most respected families in the wizarding world as of now, and I don’t see that changing any soon, on the other hand the Malfoy name couldn’t be worse off reputation wise,you have managed to keep your head above of the water, but you are still just one wrong move away from drowning. Being associated with a Weasley will do wonders for your reputation and your company’s reputation too.” 

“Malfoy obviously has a lot to win from being associated with me.” Ginny says. “But i don’t see how this would be positive for me or my image.There’s absolutely no way this could help” 

“That’s where you are wrong, this is exactly what you need.” Blaise says matter of factly and Ginny just stares at him waiting for an explanation that makes sense. “You’ve said it yourself you are tired of everything you do being related to Potter and now see whose name is in that article only once.” 

Ginny violently grabs the newspaper from the table her eyes quickly scanning the words fo the lengthy article that details their secret relationship, how their attraction had started in his last year in hogwarts between war and animosity but they both moved on with their lives, how she went to become a successful quidditch player, something the media hasn’t called her in a while, and date Harry Potter,the saviour of the magical world and old school nemesis of her current lover. After that it’s full of bullshit declarations of unnamed sources saying how their torrid affair has been kept a secret in fear of the reaction of their respective relatives and of the public. But no more of Harry.

“For starters I don’t think this will last, _ Witch Weekly _ is probably already latching out on the fact that the ex girlfriend of the chosen one is dating an ex death eater out of spite or some shit.” She looks at Malfoy out of the corner of her eye, but he doesn’t seem offended by her words, in fact he seems very amused.

“Merlin!” Malfoy exclaims in a delighted tone. “I would pay to see Saint Potter’s face, he must feel so betrayed that his perfect little girlfriend would go running into my arms just a few months after you two broke up.” 

Ginny frowns sending a glare at Malfoy,ignoring Zabini’s badly concealed snickers. She is not sure Harry would really feel betrayed, he is the one who decided they need to explore life, but she is sure he is probably blaming himself for pushing her into the arms of an almost murderer. A part of her is pleased at the thought, she wants him to see this, she wants this to affect him the way the dumb pictures of him and random girls have affected her, she wants him to be as frustrated and angry at this as she is. Another part, the mature part, the less cruel part of her is telling her to banish those thoughts out of her mind. 

“And second.” She says as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “I don’t want to go from my career being ignored because of my former relationstionship to my career being ignored because of my current relationship.” 

“I hear what you are saying, luv.” Zabini says. “But we can spin this, we can make Draco support you publicly, we can make the both of you appear on quidditch events and soon enough things will be normal enough that the press won’t give a shit about your relationship again except for a few special occasions that we can control.” 

“Can’t we just wait for this to pass?” 

“What makes you believe that I’m willing to do this?” 

Malfoy and her ask at the same time and Zabini just looks at them as if they are both the slowest people he has had the displeasure to ever meet. 

“Because things never pass with Potter, he will always be news and unless there’s something bigger you will always be tied to him. “ He explains before turning to look at Malfoy. “And I already explained why this is so good for you, it would do wonders for your reputation, if one of biggest heroes of Hogwarts Revolution can forgive you so can the rest of the world.” 

“This is such a fucking dumb idea.” She mutters to herself before taking a deep breath and straightening her back.

She is so tired of being Harry Potter’s girl, Harry Potter’s ex girlfriend, she is so tired of the questions of the press every time she goes out on the street, she is so tired of not being able to forget about her ex for just one second because all everyone wants to talk about with her is him. And it’s not limited to her public image either, her mom, her brothers, her friends, everyone keeps bringing him up in every conversation, look at her with worried, sad eyes, telling her he will get back to his senses soon and they will be back together like nothing ever happened, get their perfect little life back on track.

“But okay, I’ll do it, if you think it’s a good idea, and the Ferret is willing, I’m in. “

“What do you say,Draco?” Blaise asks him with the biggest, most mischievous grin she has ever seen on his face. It almost reminds her of the smiles the twins used to share before a big prank, except this has a slightly more calculated quality. A more slytherin quality. She doesn’t want to dwell on it. 

She looks at Malfoy, who is staring at Zabini, his face expressionless, his eyes unreadable. She is a little unnerved at the fact that she can’t read him at all, that she can’t predict his next move, there aren’t many people she can’t figure out in the world, and she doesn't like it. 

“Alright.” Malfoy says in a determined voice. “Let’s do this.” 

She is sure this will bring more problems than solutions to her life, but at this point she is desperate enough to try.


	2. Second chances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a short one but things have started to happen so I think that makes up for it. I hope you enjoye

Regret doesn’t touch Ginny’s mind when she gets home to what feels like a thousand letters from her brothers and a howler from her mother, she doesn’t even look at those,quickly burning away the Howler before she can even think about it. Nor it does when the muggle telephone Hermione and her dad insisted she installed keeps ringing non stop. It doesn’t even reach her when she gets a very cryptic letter from Luna saying that something tells her they should have lunch with Neville soon, just the three of them, and if she needs her place checked for wrackspurts she can do it for her. 

No, regret finally reaches her when she is at Blaise’s apartment for the second day in a row at the fucking crack of dawn, with a Draco Malfoy that’s just as cranky as she is. 

“Why do we have to do this so early?” Ginny asks in the middle of a yawn, not bothering to cover her mouth at all, which earns her glares from both of the slytherins on the room. 

“Because I have a work to get to, Weaslette.” Malfoy says with a sneer. “Unlike you, I can’t really laze around all day, right now.” 

“I wake up at 5 AM for 4 days a week, most weeks for the better part of 9 months a year.” She snaps at the blonde. “Do that for three years and then see if you don’t want to lie in on those few occasions you can.” 

“Haven’t you been on vacation for the last two months?” He asks raising an eyebrow at her. “Isn’t your lot proud of your work ethics? Or is that just to hide the poverty?” 

She doesn’t bother dignifying that with a response, instead she just subtly moves her wand and makes the cup of coffee he is holding fly towards his body, staining his very expensive robes, and possibly burning him a little, not that she cares about. 

“These are more expensive than your whole family, Weaslette!” He roars and Ginny sighs bored, examining her cuticles instead of listening to Malfoy whining. She is vaguely aware he magically cleans his robes yet still keeps saying they are ruined. She really doesn’t get rich people, even technically she is one of them now.

“How is this going to work if you two can’t stop fighting with each other?” Blaise asked desperate as Ginny forces herself to drink the disgusting black coffee has made for all of them that no amount of sugar would make palatable for her. 

“You should have thought of that before suggesting it.” Ginny mumbles at the same Malfoy says: “This is what you get for not thinking things through.” 

“Would any of you believe me if I said that I think you two would actually get along if you gave each other the chance.” Blaise sighs, exasperation practically coming out off his pores.

“No.” Both of them deadpan and Blaise just shakes his head. 

A silence fills the room and Ginny takes a moment to add even more sugar into her coffee, which somehow just makes it more disgusting. 

“Zabini, is there a point for this meeting?” Malfoy asks tiredly. “Because I will already have to go back home and change before work thanks to Weasley’s immaturity. “

“My immaturity?” She asks offended but Blaise starts talking over her. 

“This meeting is to plan our next movements.” He says calmly. “Have any of you talked to anyone about this?” 

“I’ve been avoiding everyone.” Ginny shrugs and Blaise turns to Malfoy. 

“I talked to mother, of course.” Malfoy says as if it was expected,Blasie just nods so maybe it was. “So I’m guessing father knows too.” 

“And I’m guessing you told them the story we prepared.” Blaise says and Malfoy sighs, obviously annoyed at being talked like a kid. 

“Yes, I know how to lie Zabini.” He says tiredly.

“Please repeat what you told her.” Zabini asks anyway and Ginny rolls her eyes at him, sharing a look with Malfoy that only lasts a second but it’s probably the only civil interaction they’ve had in this whole morning. 

“I told her that about two months ago I run into Weasley when I had gone to visit you to work, we got into a fight and things umm... escalated and that was supposed to be all but things kept escalating until we decided it was time to actually pursue a relationship.” 

“I certainly hope you didn’t call me Weasley, Malfoy.” She says with a derisive snort. 

“Of course I didn’t.” He says annoyed. “I am not dumb,  _ Ginevra _ .”

He says her name slow and deliberate.His voice low and husky, resonating through her body in ways she wasn’t prepared for, it goes through her skin, making her breath catch as heat pools down on her lower stomach. She looks away from him, not daring to meet his eyes. 

“Could have fooled me.” She mumbles, her tone lacking her usual bite.

He ignores her completely for which she is grateful. She is still trying to understand what has happened to her, how is it possible that her body reacted to the ferret at all. 

“So what is our next step, Zabini?” Malfoy asks calmly and Blaise grins at them excitedly. Ginny doesn’t like it.

“You two are going on a date tomorrow morning.”Zabini says and Ginny frowns. 

“A date?”

“Morning?” 

“Is that really your only question, Weasley?” Malfoy asks annoyed.

“Where are we going?” Ginny asks ignoring him. 

“Muggle London.” Blaise says simply and Ginny turns to look at Malfoy to see his reaction. 

“You two will meet in front of Ginny’s apartment,you will have a nice stroll around and go eat breakfast in one of the small muggle coffee shops nearby.I will make sure that there are paparazzi there at all time so please, don’t kill each other, don’t threaten each other and do your best to act like you are in love.” 

Ginny turns to look at Malfoy just to find him looking at her already with the same uncertainty she is sure is written in her eyes. She doesn’t know how she will manage to stand the git for a whole morning, much less be civil to him. And she definitely has no idea how she will manage to pretend to be in love with him. 

*.*.*.*.*.*

Despite all her whining and reluctance to get up before 11 AM when she is on vacation next morning finds her not only awake by eight, but also completely dressed on one of her most casual yet stylish outfits, a leather jacket thrown over it to fight the slight chill of the early September morning breeze. 

A part of her resents actually putting an effort on looking good for Malfoy, but she needs to make this work, she needs to make this look believable.

As soon as she walks out of her building she realizes that she is not the only one actually trying at least. Malfoy is waiting for her, leaning against a tree, wearing dark black jeans and a dark blue button down under a blazer.She is not sure what surprises her the most, the fact that he is dressed head to toe in muggle clothes or how comfortable he looks in them. 

She crosses the street quickly, easily spotting a few people trying unsuccessfully to hide cameras.As soon as she is close enough Ginny throws herself to him, giving him a tight hug, he surprises her by hugging her tightly to him with one arm, holding one of those muggle paper cups far away from her body with his other hand. She feels him kiss the top of her head as she ignores the fluttery feeling that awakens on her stomach by having him so close. He is attractive and she hasn’t had sex in months that’s all. 

“I see you have spotted the reporters.” He says quietly on her ear before letting her go. “I don’t know how these people keep their jobs.” 

She shrugs not knowing what to say or what to interact with Malfoy if it’s not through insults. 

“For you, by the way.” He says handing her the cup, she feels the heat on her hand and the soft humming of the magic of the warming charm he surely put on it. 

“What is it?” She asks confused, not daring to take a sip of it in case it’s some sort of prank. Or poison. 

“Hot chocolate.” He says casually as they start walking. “I figured you would prefer the sugar over the caffeine to wake you up.

“Thanks.”She mumbles with a frown, tentatively taking a sip of what is indeed just pure, and very good, hot chocolate. Too stunned over the fact that Malfoy noticed the fact that she is not fond of coffee. “That’s weirdly thoughtful of you.”

“I didn’t want to deal with how annoying you surely are first thing in the morning.” Malfoy informs and Ginny sighs, the small moment where she could have believed Malfoy isn’t a total arsehole completely gone. 

“Ah, of course.” She says as if talking to herself. “The self serving git wouldn’t do anything nice just for the sake of it.” 

“I can be nice, Ginevra.” He informs her,receiving a snort as an answer. “I just don’t see any reason to be nice to you.” 

“What about basic human decency?” She takes another sip of her drink. Malfoy puts an arm casually around her shoulders and she walks as closely to him as she can. She is almost sure she sees the flash of a camera out of the corner of her eye.

“You don’t show it to me.” He says simply. “Why should I make the effort with you?” 

Ginny takes a sip of her drink, she knows it a rhetorical question, but she still feels like she needs to answer.

“That’s a valid point.” She concedes and when she looks up at him she finds him staring at her with a perfectly raised eyebrow. 

“I’m surprised that you have the emotional maturity to accept when you are wrong.” He tells her. “Or the intellect to comprehend it.” 

“Oh, fuck off Malfoy.” She hisses pulling away from him and walking a few steps ahead to put some distance between her wand and him. “The one time I try to be somewhat decent to you and you act like a complete arsehole while daring to question my emotional maturity. I hope you fucking choke on your ego.”

She is ready to go in a full blown rant when she feels his cold hand wrap around her wrist tightly enough that she can’t pull away but not to cause any pain, he surprises by pulling her back to him, her chest colliding with him as his other hand goes to her waist. 

He holds her close to him, forcing her into her tiptoes, even so he needs to lean over quite a bit to rest his forehead on hers.

“Don’t walk away from me,Ginevra.” He says in that low voice of his and she is sure she forgets how to breath for a second. “It doesn’t look good for the press.” 

She bristles for a second, focusing on the familiar feeling of anger to push aside everything else.

“I guess you have a point.” He admits taking a step back, his hand going from her wrist to her own as he intertwines their fingers.

“Wow, how did those words taste in your mouth?” She asks mockingly, trying carefully to put more mirth than her trademark venom on her words. 

“Like cockroach clusters.” He says making a disgusted face, she surprises herself actually laughing at this. 

“Look, Malfoy.” She starts seriously. “If we want to make this work we can’t be at each other’s throats at each constantly, soon enough someone will notice and I doubt they will believe it’s our particular form of foreplay.We both have a lot to win with this, so to make it easier on us I think we should call a truce.”

“If we are gonna call a truce I think you are going to have to start calling me by my name.” 

“And what was that?”She asks teasingly and the smallest of amused smiles plays with the corner of his lips. She is almost proud of the fact that she got Draco Malfoy to show an emotion besides disgust and annoyance.

“You are not funny, Ginevra.” He says seriously. 

“I beg to disagree.” She says happily, swinging their joined hands between their bodies but he quickly stops her. Her heart sinks a little when she remembers how she always used to that with Harry, how he would laugh at her weird little antics and just go along with them with a big smile. She sighs heavily remembering how Luna once told her that the best way to expulse sadness out of the body.She isn’t sure it’s actually proven but she does feel a little better. 

“Since we have settled in our truce.” Malfoy starts carefully, which on itself makes her suspicious. “May I ask you something?” 

“You can ask.” She says after a few seconds of silence. “But it doesn’t mean you will get an answer.”

“Fair enough.” He nods. “Are you really that desperate to get people to stop talking about you and Potter or you are just doing this to make him jealous.” 

“The first one.” She mumbles with a shrug. “But honestly I’m not opposed to the second, I kind of like the idea really.” 

“Sometimes I think you would have fitted perfectly into Slytherin.” He chuckles softly and she just shrugs. Many people have told her so but it’s weird to hear it from the prince of the snakes himself. Especially since she has no idea when these times would be besides right now. “I wished I could see his reaction to this whole thing, I’m sure—” 

“Can we not talk about Harry please?” She snaps as they get to the small coffee shop she tends to go to on her way back from practice.

“Alright.” He says simply opening the door and once again she finds herself stunned by Draco Malfoy in less than half an hour. 

“Alright?” She asks a little surprised. “Just like that?” 

“We all have things we don’t like to talk about, Ginevra.” He shrugs. “I understand that more than some, I imagine our partnership will be much easier if we just respect that.” 

She just nods. Maybe Malfoy can be decent after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked that chapter and if you lot wanna chat or ask stuff or maybe get some random sneak peak between chapters feel free to go visit me on  
[tumblr](https://starlight-fires.tumblr.com)


	3. Locker room talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I very much lost my supposed schedule there but welp like happens. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter it was a pretty fun one for me to write.

If there is one thing Draco Malfoy has always loved is control. Of his life, of others, of everything around him. But life has shown him that no one really has control, that the word, the concept is nothing but a fantasy, a fantasy that weak minded people indulge themselves in to make believe they have even just the slightest amount of power.After and during the war he had finally learnt that real power lies on being able to fly with the bludgers life throws at you. 

He just never imagined the next bludger to hit him would be Ginevra Weasley shaped. 

He got into this problem the same way he has gotten in most problem on his life. By listening to Blaise Zabini. 

In his defense, it’s a good idea, he is very well aware how good it is for his reputation to be seen out and about with a Weasley, just having his name on the newspaper without the words  _ ex death eater  _ next to it is a win for him. And Ginevra herself isn’t the worst part of it all,even before they called their truce on their first pretend date yesterday’s morning, verbally sparring with her has always been entertaining, since their school days he enjoyed riling her up and trading insults with her. It was a good way to let out steam and she had always been more witty than any of her brothers, always more challenging. Not that he would ever admit to that. 

So Weasley herself, no matter how quickly she seems to get on his last nerve, is not the biggest problem here. 

His mother is. 

He doesn’t even have to check to know that the little muggle date Zabini set up for him and Ginevra is on the paper. His mother’s face is enough of a clue, a displeased look clear on her delicate face. 

“Mother.” He says as a greeting before he starts eating his breakfast. She stays silent for a few seconds but of course the peacefulness can’t last long. 

“Honestly, Draco.” She starts, obviously indignant. “I know things have been hard for us lately, but I’m sure you could find a more suitable woman.”

“We’ve already had this conversation.” He sighs tiredly and she glares at him. 

“No, we didn’t.” She says harshly. “You informed me you are now dating a Weasley, a quidditch player, said you didn’t want to hear any of my opinions and went off to work.” 

“And that, I think, is all that needed to be said.” Draco states simply, trying not to cower in front of her cold blue eyes. His mother could be terrifying when she wanted. Or maybe she just trained him well.

“She is not a good wife prospect, Draco.” She exclaims and he finds himself choking on his coffee. 

“I’m not planning on marrying her,mother.” He says trying to keep his composure.

“So is this not a serious relationship?” She asks scandalized. “Have you let the press get their dirty little hands all over a fling of yours.”

“That’s not what this is either.” He says tiredly and his mother huffs. 

“Then what is it?” His mother asks annoyed. “You need to start thinking about marriage, Draco, you are twenty three it’s time to get serious.”

“No one gets married so young anymore, mother.” He says.

“People like us do.” She says. “Pansy Parkinson is getting married next month to that french heir. Astoria is well on her way to getting engaged according to her mother.” 

“Can we not-?”

“I honestly don’t know what happened there, Draco, she is such a great girl,from such a good family,you should have never bro-”

“I need to go to work, mother.” He says firmly, standing up and leaving his breakfast unfinished. 

“There was an owl from Blaise this morning.” She says casually, totally and completely unbothered by his outburst. A clear sign that he won’t get out of this conversation. He just roughly grabs the letter and puts it in his pocket. 

Just after he has flooed to his office he opens it, not wanting to risk his mother snooping around. 

_ Draco  _

_ You and Weasley, look hot together, good job yesterday. I’m proud of you both, almost fooled me, and I know what’s up.  _

_ The harpies training resumes today, Weasley, should be free around your lunchtime, I think you should give her a surprise, would make you look like a good boyfriend and would put some of Ginny’s actual work in the spotlight.  _

_ Be careful though, I haven’t told her about this particular plan. She might not react so kindly to that.  _

_ Blaise  _

He reads the letter carefully and has half a mind to warn Ginevra that he is coming to visit her but something tells him it will be much more entertaining if he doesn't. And he is never one to pass on entertainment.

* * *

Ginny Weasley is a good flyer,more than good,an excellent flyer, she is one of the best on the whole league,might even go to the next Quidditch World Cup,if rumors are right. This all means that there aren't many things that can destabilize her when she is on a broom,no bludgers passing by,no vicious players of the opposite team,not even veela's unleashing their full power like it happened that one time in the exhibition match with that french team. But seeing Draco Malfoy waiting for her in the bleachers, sitting alone and separated from all the families and significant others who are allowed to wait for them on the pitch,definitely comes close.

There are a lot of things that are wrong with that very image,one, he shouldn't be there,there's a dizzying amount of paperwork and background checks that someone needs to go through to be allowed on the pitch while the team is practicing,second she has no idea why he is here. 

She swerves to avoid being hit by a bludger she didn’t see coming until it was almost too late. She feels the leather of it graze her arm just slightly and she curses herself for getting distracted. She is going to murder him and she is going to murder Zabini because she is sure it is his fault. 

She hears Gwenog yell at her but she doesn’t register the words just keeps up with the play as if nothing happened. She already knows what she did wrong, and she knows whose fault it is. 

She fumes silently the last ten minutes of practice until they are allowed to land and then she flies straight to where Malfoy is. 

“What are you doing here?” She demands as she gracefully gets off her broom and stands in front of him.

“I thought I would just give my girl a visit.” He says with a pleasant smile,but she can see the mirth on his eyes. 

“Don’t call me  _ your  _ girl.” She says in her best low and dangerous voice. “I am not property.” 

He looks at her up and down with a look she can’t quite describe but makes a shiver go down her spine. 

“How did you get in?” She asks, desperately wanting to get that look out of his face. 

“I have connections, Ginevra.” 

“Zabini?” 

“Actually no.” He says smugly. “Not this time at least.” 

“Then who?” She demands and he just smirks at her. 

“It’s a secret.” 

“Well, that seems like a huge security liability.” She huffs, letting her hair free from the ponytail she usually wears during training, just to have something to do with her hands. 

“Don’t worry, dear.” Malfoy tells her, to anyone else his voice would sound comforting but she is smart enough to hear the teasing on it. “I assure you this stadium is completely safe and you have nothing to worry about, they won’t let just anyone get in.” 

“They let you in.” She mumbles and his smirk just grows wider. 

“I’m not just anyone.” 

She wants to answer that he is right, he is less than anyone, but she bites her tongue. Not necessarily out of respect of the cease fire they verbally agreed on the day before,she is annoyed enough to just ignore that. But there are people around them, people who are very not subtly looking at them and overhearing their conversation. 

“Well, you are very right about that.” She says sweetly, hoping her eyes convey how angry she is at him right now. “Sweetheart.” 

He smiles and leans in closer to her as if he was kissing her cheek or maybe whispering sweet nothings into her ear. 

“Don’t call me sweetheart.” He says. “It’s such a childish endearment term.” 

She laughs in that playful way she does when she is flirting before she stands on her tiptoes so her face is just centimeters away from his, since he is still leaning down. 

“Then don’t you ever do something like this without me knowing.” She says resting her hand on his surprisingly toned bicep. “I don’t like to be blindsided, you are lucky this is a public place.” 

She pulls away with a flirty smile and then flies away from him, landing softly in front of the entrance to the changing rooms. She takes a deep breath, she managed to avoid questions before practice, she managed to steer all conversation away from her supposed new love affair but now that he is here, that he came to see her practice there’s no way she will be able to use Elena and Lucy finally shagging to keep everyone distracted and herself safe. Malfoy really came and destroyed all her carefully built plans to avoid dealing with this. She wishes she could have hexed him. 

“So it’s true?”Someone asks as soon as she sets foot on the locker room and she doesn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at Lyra who just grins at her.

“I told you it was, they were very close to each other at the gala.” Lucy informs their keeper, who had to miss the award ceremony because of a family wedding and looks like she is regretting it now. “There was definitely some fire there.” 

“How would you know?” Ginny retorts not looking at any of them as she gathers her things for the shower. “You were pretty busy yourself.” 

“Yeah, yeah, she finally got into Elena’s pants.” Ariana says, a teasing smile playing on her lips. “But that’s old news, however you and Malfoy is completely new.”

“And completely surprising.” Lyra says eliciting a snort from Gwen. 

“Surprising?” Gwen asks. “Have you seen that man? I would be all over that, and on top of that or even under that, I’m not picky.”

Ginny groans loudly at this as the laughter of the rest of her teammates fills the room.

“Is he as good in the sack as he looks like he is?” Gwen as suggestively. Ginny just ignores her, her cheeks hot enough that she knows her face probably blends with her hair. 

“Look at her, he is!”Elena hollers and the room erupts in whistles, laughter and very dirty,very invasive questions Ginny pretends she can’t hear. She has never been really that open with her team about her sex life, knowing that Harry wouldn’t be comfortable with that, which they understood very quickly but now that this is a new relationship they seem willing to try and squeeze all the information they can out of her.

“Just tell me one thing.” Gwen talks loudly over everyone else, making them shut up. “Are those fingers as heavenly as they look?” 

She hears some giggles and Ginny realizes that she can’t really avoid the questions, if she doesn’t give them something this will just keep going. She has to give them softly. 

“Even better.” She makes herself say, a smug smile plastered on her face, her tone confident and just slightly dreamy. She is so lucky she is a good actress. “But even that is nothing compared to what he can do with his tongue.” 

She hears the chatter and the rest of the questions as she walks into the showers and as she is under the running water she is definitely not wondering about Malfoy’s fingers or tongue. She would never, because she spares him no thoughts besides the absolutely necessary ones. 

She just takes a nice relaxing shower and when she comes out none of her teammates are around, which she is incredibly grateful for. What she isn’t grateful for, not even a little bit, is that the blonde who just starred on her latest sex talk is waiting for her right outside of the dressing room. 

“Your teammates were all sending me very particular looks.” He comments as soon as he sees her.Genuinely confused. 

“I might have implied some things about you.” She mumbles, breathing slowly as to not let herself blush. 

“What?” He asks, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at her. 

“It’s nothing bad.” She defends herself quickly. 

“Then what is it.” 

“I’m not telling you.” 

“Then it must have been something horrible.” He says. “This isn’t going to work well if you go around telling people how shitty I am, Ginevra.” 

“I didn’t tell anyone you are shitty, Draco.” She says, the name still foreign in her mouth. 

“Then what?” He asks and Ginny looks at him out of the corner of her eye. 

“It’s nothing.” She says and he just throws her a look. “I swear.” 

“I don’t believe you.” 

“I can see that.” 

“And I won’t believe you until you tell me what it is.” 

“I just said that you are –I just told them that–.” She takes a deep breath, she is a grown woman she shouldn’t be getting flustered about this. “Well I might just have told them that you are quite talented when it comes to using your tongue.” 

His laugh surprises her, enough to turn to look at him fully. His laugh is controlled just like everything about him, his head is just slightly tilted back, his eyes are not completely closed, he still looks more relaxed that she has ever seen him. It’s weird. It’s kind of nice. 

“What’s with that, Weasley?” He asks amusement very clear on his tone. “Have you been fantasizing about me? Have you started wondering if maybe our mutually benefitting agreement could have some more interesting benefits?"

"You wish." She says, hoping her voice sounds more stable and less embarrassed than she feels. 

"I would never quite sink that low." He says, his demeaning words lacking the usual spite. They sound more like a friendly jab now,but they still settle into her stomach heavily, bringing back all the feelings of inadequacy she used to feel when Malfoy would insult her hair,her clothes or her freckles on their school days. And all of the rage too. 

She takes a deep breath, counting backwards from ten. She won't let him get to her in any way. 

"You could never handle nor get a woman like me, Malfoy." She says, just a little bit harsher than she intended. "So it's better that you don't let yourself want it, that way the disappointment won't crush you when you realize you are not in my level." 

"I'm definitely not, Weasley." He says teasingly and she hates the fact that right now she is boiling inside with anger and he seems completely calm and relaxed.

The retort is right at the tip of her tongue, full of venom, ready to pack a deathly punch and remind him exactly at what level the wizarding society at large thinks he is on right now. But she doesn't answer, he has no way to know the way his comment has affected her. She can see that for him they are still in the territory of harmless bantering. And more importantly she won't let him see that he has gotten to her.

"Come on, Weasley." He says putting a hand on the small of her back as soon as they are outside of the stadium. "Let's go grab a bite, I'm starving. Though I'm sure you would rather get my amazing mouth busy in other ways." 

She rolls her eyes at him. Discreetingly taking out her wand and casting a spell that sends him tripping in the most ungraceful way possible. He glares at her, but doesn't really seem that mad. Surprisingly that doesn't make her angrier.It actually calms her down a little.

She doesn't examine this. She doesn't examine anything that had happened today. She just stores it away, keeps it hidden on her mind to never be examined. Just like the very weird very blurry dream she has that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna you can go and visit me on tumblr: starlight-fires.tumblr.com


	4. The Weasley temper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've taken forever but uni is hard af (if you ever consider getting into anything that needs neuroanatomy just run my dudes, run for the hills) and in the last week which i was supposed to have more time actually my country went to shit lol No but really Chile is doing awful and I invite you to inform yourself about what's happening and how the goverment is responding to the protest (violently, unfairly, i hate the army)  
Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

When Draco decided to go visit his best friend that same friday night his intention was to forget about the whole pretending to date Weasley issue. Just kick back and relax and not think about the weirdness his life has gotten him to. But of course life has other plans and the moment he walks out of the floo he hears Ginevra screaming at the top of her lungs. And it's not the pleasure kind of screams. 

He considers just leaving, they are not in the living room and his little plan of not thinking of Weasley or anything related to their situation is definitely busted already, but the bigger part of him is curious. So he walks into the kitchen and is highly rewarded by his curiosity. 

There’s something extremely hilarious in the image of his best friend completely cowering in front of a woman who is at least a head and half shorter than him. She doesn’t even have her wand out but Blaise is trying to make himself as small as possible nonetheless. 

“...You never blindside me again, understood?” She asks shaking a finger in front of his face. Another hilarious image when she almost has to stand on her tiptoes to do so. 

Blaise just nods enthusiastically mumbling words Draco can’t quite hear but he assumes are apologies. He can’t really blame him for being scared of the small redhead, they are all very aware how dangerous she can be. 

“Hello Blaise, Ginevra, a pleasure to see you, as always.” He says calmly and both of them turn to look at him, very different expressions on their faces. He needs to make the conscious decision to not cower in front of Weasley’s glare. 

“What are you doing here?” Blaise asks, taking the opportunity to slip away from Ginevra’s reach. Draco doesn’t comment that there is no way that he will get safely out of hexing range. Maybe if he is lucky he gets to see Zabini with flying bogeys all over his face. 

“I thought I would come by and maybe we could go out to a bar and have a drink, but I see that won’t be possible.” He sends a look to Ginevra. She obviously is coming straight from practice, she is wearing the same sports bra and tight sweatpants with the Harpies logo that she was wearing earlier in the day, there’s sweat glistening on her forehead and obviously coating her long red hair. His eyes sweep down her body involuntarily, in the same way they did when she had gone to talk to him before their little lunch date. He quickly averts his eyes, not wanting to win himself an hex straight to the balls or to make the fact that he was checking her out too obvious. But his eyes keep going to her body, almost as if there’s is magnetic force that keeps his eyes traveling from her breast to her toned abdomen to her legs. He can’t look away, he doesn’t even want to. 

“Don’t worry, Malfoy.” She says startling him as he returns his gaze to her eyes. “I’m just about to leave, you can have your boys night. I’m too knackered to keep yelling at Zabini.” 

“Thank, Merlin.” He hears his friend mutter under his breath and he needs to suppress a snort.

“You could always come with us.” He offers, he quickly rationalizes that he just wants to enjoy his friend being terrified of the tiny woman in front of them some more. That’s all.

“I’m honestly too tired to even be standing anymore.” He tells him, voice softer than a few minutes before, the corner of her lips pulling up in a small smile.He doesn’t question himself why this makes him feel slightly proud. 

“Suit yourself.” He says casually, turning to Blaise who is sending him a weird look he ignores. “So? “

“I’m going, but only after Ginny leaves my apartment.” He says turning to her. “I’m not leaving you alone in the place I live.” 

“Bold of you to assume I didn’t do something already.” She snorts as she walks to the living room, Blaise trailing after her a desperate look on his face. Draco stays behind, noticing the two cups of tea on the kitchen counter, he picks them both up and examines them. There’s nothing there so he guesses Weasley is just bluffing to scare Zabini, which is kind of genius on itself. He is sure his friend will be terrified for days to come. 

“What was that?” He hears Blaise ask and he just turns to him raising an eyebrow. “Why did you invite Ginny to go out with us?” 

“Isn’t the point of this whole charade that we are seen together?” He rolls his eyes. “Plus she is entertaining to be around, especially when she has you shaking on your boots.” 

“Ha!”He exclaims not even attempting to deny the fact that Weasley scares him. “I told you two would actually get along if you tried.” 

He just hums noncommittal, Weasley isn’t that bad but he wouldn’t say that they get along just now. Not that he hopes that changes soon either. Why would he?

* * *

Ginny has a plan, or well half of a plan, or well more of a concept. But the point is that she has a vague idea of how to do this, because no matter how much she wants to ignore it she can’t. She needs to talk to her family, she needs to come clean about her new budding relationship, no matter how fake. And above everything she needs to talk to her dad. That’s the thing she dreads the most, but she needs to be an adult and she needs to do it. 

She just floos into The Burrow as always. It's a Saturday morning so there’s no one roaming around, all of her brothers busy with their lives.Exactly like she wanted. She walks into the kitchen and as expected her parents are there, her mum making breakfast, humming an old song under her breath while her dad reads the paper talking to himself. 

“Good morning.” She says softly, trying not to startle them. It doesn’t really work, old habits die hard and her whole family tends to be ready to jump into attack mode at the slightest of unexpected noises. Her mom glares at her so she just smiles innocently. 

“You could try dropping by without giving me a heart attack, child.” Her mom complains with her hand on her chest, her dad chuckles softly. Ginny examines them, their casualness doesn’t seem forced at all.

“Why don’t you sit down and have some breakfast I will make some for you.” 

She knows better than to refuse it, especially since her break up with Harry her mum has been fussing over her endlessly and she finds that its easier to just let her. And it does help somehow.

“So…” She starts and her father sends her a curious look but doesn’t press her. “I wanted to…I know that I haven’t …”

“You don’t owe us any explanations, Gin.” Her dad says softly, as always much more perceptive than he lets people think he is. “We were a little bit worried when we first saw it on the papers but you are a grown adult and you can make your own decisions.” 

“And we trust those decisions, sweetheart.” Her mum says softly from the stove. 

“I’m still sorry I didn’t come by earlier.” She says,not managing to meet the understanding and warmth on her father’s eyes. “You should have been the first people to know.” 

“You must have had your reasons,dear.”He says softly before lowering his voice so his wife wouldn’t be able to hear him. “Do you trust him?” 

Ginny frowns looking at her dad.This was the question she dreaded, the question she knew he would ask. And she has been so scared to answer it. She knows what she has to say, she knows it’s not a total lie. She does trust him, she trusts him not to betray her and go running to the press with something that could ruin her, she trusts him not to sell her to make himself look better, she trusts him not to kill her, not to curse her, not to do anything that would endanger her life on purpose. But her dad is asking something more, she is asking if she trusts the son of the man who slipped a cursed diary on her things when she was just a kid, if she trusts him with her heart, and her secrets and her vulnerability, if she trusts him with all her fears and all of her traumas. He is asking if she trusts this ex death eater to care for her and face what he has done to her too. It’s such a loaded question, even if it’s so simple on its wording. If this was a real relationship she would be wondering all of this herself, but it’s not and it doesn’t really matter. 

“I do.” She answers softly, a small smile playing on her lips. She trusts him for what she needs to trust him. 

Her dad smiles at her, his eyes softening completely, his posture relaxing and Ginny feels something stir unpleasantly on her chest but she keeps up the act. She smiles at her dad like the mere thought of Draco Malfoy could light her up from the inside. She smiles, totally assured on her words, because they are true. 

She has always been good at this, telling half truths, using the little bits of reality that work for her. She worries sometimes, how alike to a certain Slytherin it makes her. 

She remembers Draco saying how she would have fitted perfectly in Slytherin, the obvious amusement on his voice relaxing her somehow.

“If you are happy we are happy, sweetheart.” Molly says softly, sliding a plate with sausages, eggs and bread in front of her daughter. Ginny smiles up at her and gives her hand a quick squeeze. 

She starts eating. She can’t say this went better than she hoped, she always knew her parents would be understanding. It just makes it worse. Not that she is eager to face her brothers at the family lunch tomorrow.

She swallows the guilt with a spoonful of eggs. Something that’s way easier than it should be, but she is aware of her flaws.

“Look who finally decided to show her face here.” Ron’s sharp, angry breaks the silence, startling everyone in the room.

“Hello, Ron.” She says as calmly as she can manage. “Nice to see you too.” 

“Nice to…Nice...Hello?”He turns to their parents looking completely baffled,like he can’t believe her attitude. “ Hello...You go...The papers...And you…”

“I was under the impression you had learnt how to formulate a full sentence about 20 years ago, Ron.” She says casually and goes back to her breakfast. 

“I can not believe you!” He exclaims finally and Ginny just raises an eyebrow at him. “You go around parading yourself with that bloody bastard and…” 

“Language!”Molly exclaims

“Parade myself?” Ginny asks at the same time. “What the fuck am I? A race broom?”

“You can’t just come back after a week of being in the papers with a death eater and act like nothing is happening!”

“An ex death eater.” Ginny says coldly. “And no matter what you seem to believe, I am my own person and can make my own decisions, Ron.” 

“Not good ones apparently.” Ron tells her and Ginny glares at him but he is not dissuaded. “You can’t just forget everything he has done.” 

“You have no idea what he has or not done, Ron!”She says frustrated. “You have no idea of what kind of person he has become or how much he has changed.” 

Neither does she, but that hardly seems relevant in this moment.

“He has you under the Imperius” Ron mutters walking to her and taking her chin on his before she swats him away with a little more force than necessary. “ Or he slipped you a love potion that’s that only explanation!” 

“Because I’m dumb enough to let something like that happen.” She exclaims exasperated. She hears her parents telling them to calm down. She ignores them.

“Well we know you can-” He starts but Ginny stands up forcefully making him take a step back.

“Finish that sentence and you will be in San Mungos’s for a month.” She says her voice calm and hard. The bright red anger she was feeling just seconds ago replaced by ice on her veins. 

He stares back at her, his face slightly white but his eyes still determined. 

“You can’t do this, Ginny.” He says. “You can’t take something like this back, you will end up regretting it.”

“If I do, that’s on me.” She says coldly. “It’s my life, my decisions, my mistakes and you have absolutely no say what I can or should do. I did not ask for your opinion either because guess what, Ron? I don’t fucking need it.” 

She turns around saying goodbye to her parents before leaving the room.She doesn’t bother to send another look to Ron, but as soon as she apparates home she takes a scrap of parchment and writes a small note: 

_ How do you feel about doing something tonight that will piss off my brother? _

_ Ginny  _

It’s not long before she gets his answer:

_ Which one?  _

_ Not that it actually matters. I’m in.  _

_ D.M _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can come visit me on tumblr if you want: starlight-fires.tumblr.com


	5. Alleys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo things finally start getting interesting here and in next chapter the mature rating of this story starts appearing more fully I would say. And yet another trope is gonna be included here, which is fun, the whole point of this fic for me is just to be a self indulgent mess i guess, but I hope someone out there is enjoying it too. Thanks so much for reading.

Draco Malfoy has never been one for improvisation, he has always liked detailed plans, mostly because his spur of the moment decisions have never ended exactly well.He has been known for making rash decisions that end badly for everyone involved, especially himself, so growing up he has learned to avoid them. Yet here he is,wearing his best casual clothes, just hours after Weasley’s owl found its way to him and presented with a very tempting offer to piss off one of the many brothers she had. He thought he had matured, but apparently there are things one just can’t get over.

“So what’s the plan?” Blaise asked him sitting on the chair opposite to him. 

“No idea.” Draco shrugged at him,trying to seem casual.It’s not like he was worried or concerned about it, he is very aware of how cunning and smart the youngest Weasley can be, he had suffered it himself many times back in the day. He expected this plan to be devilishly delicious.

“I hope you make it out alive, mate.” His friend says looking more than delighted by the possibility that he might not. 

“Of course I will.” He rolls his eyes. “What do you think Weasley will do to me?”

“I don’t know but I’m sure it’s go-”An abrupt noise and a set of curses interrupt Blaise and both men turn to look at the source. Draco knew logically that it could only be Ginevra but he wasn’t ready to see her. Not like that. 

She is wearing a simple black dress that clings to her every curve and stops right in the middle of her creamy,freckled thighs leaving the rest of her toned legs exposed, his eyes travel the way down to her heeled shoes on their own accord just to go back up and focus on the way the dress hugs her breast, it’s not a considerable cleavage, it hides just a little more than it shows, like it’s playing a sinful game of temptation, just luring you to discover what else is under it. Her vibrant, silky red hair falls against her bare shoulders in a contrast that makes his fingers itch to touch it, to touch her soft skin and brush his fingers through her long hair, discover all the hidden colors that could come out just at his fingertips.

He needs a second to realize she is struggling to maintain her balance but once he does he shots out of his chair and helps her stand up straight, he was raised right after all and if he takes the opportunity to hold her closer to him than necessary or brush the tips of her hair as he rests his hand on her waist no one can say it’s not an accident. 

“Thanks, Malfoy.” She says standing up straighter and moving her hair out of her face. “This is why I never wear heels, honestly who needs to be a few inches taller when you feel like you could die any second.” 

“You play quidditch for a living,Ginevra.” He says, the small smirk that tugs at his lips impossible to hide. “I’m pretty sure a fall from a broom is way more dangerous than a fall while wearing heels.” 

“I have a longer reaction time while falling from a broom.” She huffs as she steps away from him. He needs to make a conscious effort not to step back into her personal space and press her against him. 

He takes a deep breath trying to control himself. He is not a horny teeanager anymore who can’t control himself in front of any mildly attractive witch. And this is still just Weasley he has better taste than that. 

“You look nice.” She said looking at him appraisingly and nodding to herself as if she likes what she sees. “Well done.” 

“I know how to dress, Ginevra.” He says almost in automatic, ignoring the warm feeling spreading across him at her compliment. 

She rolls her eyes at him but doesn’t bother to answer to him, instead she turns to Blaise and grins. 

“How do we look?” She asks with a devilish glint on her eyes. Zabini just looks at them raising an eyebrow when his and Draco’s eye meet. He shakes his head at him and Blaise just grins back at Ginevra. 

“You need just one little touch.” He says and points his wand and the redhead, turning her dress into a deep shade of green. Slytherin green. 

“Perfect.” Her grin grows,looking every bit like a cat who just caught a poor little mouse on her claws. He needs to look away, something about that look stirs something inside him, something he is more than decided to ignore. “Alright so here’s the thing, Draco and I are going to make a small appearance at Fangs, you Zabini are going to make sure the press knows where we are and then you are gonna met us there, understood?” As soon as Zabini nods Ginevra turns Draco. “Your job tonight is to swallow all of your pride and just be all over me in the most sickening possible way, I want your hands on me constantly, on my waist, on my knee, wherever, if you go too far I will let you know don’t worry about that, the more scandalous those pictures come out the better, do you think you can do that?” 

“I will try my best not to show what a true torture that will be.” He says sarcastic. His breath is catching just at the mere idea but he will be damned if Weasley can notice it. 

“Okay then.” She says putting a leather jacket he hadn’t noticed she was carrying and then offering him her arm.”I’ll apparate us there, I have access to a private apparation point that will let us skip the line.” 

He can just take her arm, a witty comment right at the point of his tongue which gets lost completely the moment his hand brushes against one strand of hair. The last thing he sees before the apparate is Blaise's way too amused face. 

“Didn’t know you had connections,Ginevra.” He mutters once she has side along apparated him. 

“I know the owner.” She says with a wink and before he can ask she drags him out of the small room. She does a quick job of taking him straight to the bar and ordering two firewhiskeys to the barman as Draco looks around. He knows the place is fairly popular, a mix of magical and muggle styles and music and drinks. The perfect pinnacle of the current principles magical society is trying to achieve. Maybe that’s why he has never been here. He doesn’t really hold to the beliefs his parents forced into him as a child but he still maintains that he is much better than most people and not everyone should have the pleasure of his company. The kind of people around here are definitely not among the select few that deserve it. Somehow he can’t care though. Not when Ginevra presses herself against him, her back resting on his chest, she is still holding one of his hands and she guides it to her stomach, he decides that that’s not enough and put his arm around her small waist, forcing them even closer together as they wait for their drinks. He is aware of more than one person looking at them and very obviously talking about them. He pretends he doesn’t notice as he leans in to whisper close to Ginevra’s ear, even with her heels she reaches just up to his chin. 

“So must the show start right away or should we wait for the press?” He thinks he feels her shiver in his arms but its such a fleeting, small movement he can’t be sure he isn’t imagining it. Or projecting. 

“It wouldn’t be very subtle if we suddenly acted all in love only when there are cameras, would it?” She asks looking up at him. They hand her their drinks so she pulls away and turns around to give his glass to him. He misses her warmth instantly.

He hums taking a hand to her waist and pulling her close again. It’s all for the act, after all. 

“You do have a point.” He says.

“I am a smart person, Draco.” She says with a devilish smile, the lights from the club playing with the shades of her hair in a quite distracting way. “Even if you can’t fathom it.” 

“I admitted a long time ago how smart you are.” He says moving them so she is trapped between his body and the bar. “That first bat bogey made an impression.”

She laughs throwing her head back as she rests her elbows on the counter, looking every bit like this close to him is the place she should always be in. He wipes that thought out of his head. 

“I’m not sure that’s a show of intelligence.” She says with a casual shrug. “Power on the other hand, it definitely shows.” 

“What it showed me was that it was in my best interest to be afraid of you.” He shakes his head and almost regrets his words when he sees the way her eyebrows arch. 

“Are you afraid of me, Draco?” She purrs leaning closer to him, a daring expression on her eyes. The whole image combined with the faint flowery scent of her hair make his dick twitch. He takes a sip of his fire whiskey trying to focus on the way it burns down his throat and not on the way Ginevra’s eye seem to burn on the rest of his body. 

“It would be extremely stupid not to be.” He says simply and this answer seems to delight her. She lets out a surprised laugh, totally and completely honest as her eyes dance with mischief. His lips form an amused smile on their own accord and this only seems to make her happier. He has this dumb instinct to just lean in closer and kiss her. But before he can endanger his life someone grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him away from her. 

He is half expecting to see Blasie, he has a witty comment on the tip of his tongue for him. What he is not expecting is a very angry red head and the fist attached to him flying to his face. The fist doesn’t reach his target, luckily for him, instead Ronald Weasley finds himself attacked by flying boogers and Ginevra walks to stand right in front of him. Behind Ronald there are two of his brothers, he can recognize one of the twins but he has no idea who the other one is.

“What the fuck are you lot doing here?” She hisses, obviously not trying not to make a scandal as she releases Ronald from her hex. The twin, or well former twin, seems endlessly amused by whatever is transpiring and the other one, a long haired bloke with a scar across his face, is staring at Draco as if he could see straight into his soul. Draco stares right back, he won’t let himself be intimidated. Besides he has Ginevra between him and her angry brothers, that’s all the protection he needs. 

“What the fuck are we doing here?” Ronald repeats indignantly marvels at the fact that even in the dim light of the club he can see the tips of his ears get bright red. “What are you doing here? Looking like that and with this asshole I couldn’t believe it when Seamus told me that you were-”

“We had this conversation already, Ron.” Ginevra says cooly and Draco almost winces, he made himself pretty familiar with that tone back in their schooldays and more than once it sent him either running to Madam Pomfrey or straight into an extremely embarrassing situation. “And you have absolutely no right to intervene in my life this way, being an ass while we are in The Burrow is one thing but coming to public place and ruining my night is another and I won't-.” 

“Now that you mention it.” Draco starts softly,not wanting to further wake her ire. “Maybe we should find somewhere more private to discuss this.” 

“You don’t tell me what to do.” She says turning to him, fire on her eyes and venom on her voice. He takes a step back raising both of his hand and doesn’t say anything else. The unnamed Weasel looks at him with a raised eyebrow but Draco ignores him. He is a slightly more concerned on whether he should let Ginevra murder her brother or not. “No one tells me what to do.” 

She states that giving pointed looks to each of her brothers, the twin just laughs which seems to make Ginevra even more angry than she is.He can see the red rising from her chest into her neck and to her cheeks. She looks like she is about to explode

“I’m just here to enjoy the show.” The twin says and Ginevra raises her wand towards him, every Weasley prepares to throw a shield but he snatches her wand before she can do any damage. Because he is sure she would have, no amount of shields would have stopped her. She turns to him and he suddenly remembers that she can do just as much damage with one of her punches as she can with her wand, and that was only when she was a sixteen year old, most likely weakened by a few cruciatus. Now she is a grown woman, a professional athlete. He takes a deep breath deciding she probably won’t kill him with so many witnesses around. 

“If you do anything rash, like hexing one of your brothers again, the press will, do doubt, be talking about how I’ve dragged you to the dark side and turned you into a death eater, turning you against your whole family for the next few months.” He whispers just for her ears. “It’s bad enough that everyone has seen this fight already.” 

She frowns at him but grabs his hand and turns to her brothers. She seems like she wants to say something, or possibly torture them slowly but she just shakes her head and walks away bumping her shoulder rather brusquely with Ronald’s, making him stumble as she drags Draco away and out of the club. They find themselves in an alley and Draco only hesitates a second before returning her wand to a very angry Ginevra Weasley. 

“I can’t believe those absolute wankers would even dare…”She says as she starts to pace. “And that Seamus would just—The fucking assholes,I’m going to cut their balls off I swear…” 

She keeps pacing and muttering to herself and Draco has half the mind to tease her but he rather likes his balls where they are. 

“Thank you.” He says after a while surprising him. “I shouldn’t have exploded in there and now that I did this will be a mess, I already see every magazine and paper talking about how I've changed my family for money and abandoned all my ideals. Not even Zabini will be able to fix this."

He is only half listening to her, a plan forming on his mind as he hears the faint pops of apparition close to them and spots someone lingering by the entrance to the alley. 

“What if we gave him something to work with?” He asks keeping track of who must be a reporter in the corner of his eyes. 

“What do you-?” She starts but he doesn’t let her finish, instead he takes her hand and pulls her against him as their lips meet. 

She seems shocked at first buts she wastes no time kissing him back. 

He kisses her hard, his hands going to her hips and pressing them against his as his tongue finds hers.He is expecting her to pull away any second, to ask his reasons, ask him to explain.His fingers tighten around her hips. His whole body refusing to let go of this kiss. She gasps taking her arms around his neck and walks backwards until her back is pressed against the wall of the building. 

He notices a flash, two. But he doesn’t really care not when Ginevra is grinding against him,sending shivers of pleasure up his spine and making him harden. He bites her lower lip roughly and she surprises him with a small whimper as she presses herself even more against him. He takes his hands down her thighs, if this was any other moment, any other woman, he wouldn’t hesitate to take his hand under her skirt, push aside her knickers and make her climax right there. But the consequences of it would be too great, it would become another type of scandal, it's already becoming one, he is sure. So he pulls away from her lips despite the fact that every inch of his being is protesting against it. 

“I’m going to apparate us.” He warns her and leans in to kiss her one last time as they appear into his London apartment. 

She is the first one to pull away once they are in his living room, as he knew she would, still it stings in some way and a voice in his body is berating him for not taking further advantage of the situation, he could have set privacy wards on the alley without her noticing, let the situation end up where it was supposed to. She didn’t seem like he was gonna stop him any soon.

He is a fucking moron. 

He stares at her for a few seconds, her eyes are darker than he has ever seen them, her lips are swollen in such a delicious way he needs to look away from them or he won’t be able to control his actions. As he looks down to her breasts, rapidly moving up and down with her shallow breathing the only thought that is able to make sense in his mind is that if she looks like this after being thoroughly snogged he needs to know how she looks after being thoroughly shagged. 

“We should contact Zabini.” He tells her looking away from her. Trying to regain any semblance of focus. 

She looks dazed but she nods and silently casts the patronus charm. A silvery phoenix comes out of her wand, casting an eerie glow on Ginevra that makes him want to kiss her again. 

He is fucked and not even in the good way. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say for myself, to make it worse this is short af but that's better than nothing right? Hopefully updates come a little bit more fast from now on

Ginny Weasley is no stranger to impulsive decisions leading to weird situations, she has learnt to find the humor on them. And as easy at is to find the humor at the fact that Zabini is looking both incredibly amused and incredibly mad at them at the same time she can not find humor on the way she is still tingling from Malfoy’s touch, that she is still feels like she made a mistake pulling away from that kiss, that she still wants to just walk to him and snog him senseless. Because none of that should be happening. She shouldn’t be feeling this way about the ferret for fucks sake. 

“...Couldn’t you at least make my life easier?” Blaise asks shaking his head at them. “Making out in such a public place? You are both public figures.” 

“Figured that was better than the papers saying that I turned her against her family and converted her into a death eater.” Malfoy says and Ginny nods absentmindedly, she hasn’t been able to focus on much of what’s Blaise has been ranting about and she knows she should be putting a little bit of brain power into heñping diffuse the situation but she is too busy having an existential crisis. She always knew that Draco was objectively attractive, even beautiful in certain ways, he has an elegant kid of beauty that can leave anyone enthralled but this is different. The way she feels right now is completely different. It’s not base attraction, it’s not what she would feel for any attractive person she might see walking on the street. And she is not sure she can handle that. 

“Marginally.” Blaise exclaims. “This is a scandal and no one will like that.” 

“Every harpy has at least one scandal under their wings.” Ginny shrugs, sounding distant even to her own ears, but Zabini is busy having his breakdown and Malfoy is pointedly not looking at her. 

“Well…” Blaise looks at her and crosses his arms over his chest. “Yeah...But it’s bad for Draco, this can affect his credibility.” 

“He doesn’t have much of it.” She shrugs sneaking a look at Malfoy and looking away as soon as she sees he is looking at her. She takes a deep breath. She is not blushing, there is no chance she is blushing. “That’s why we are doing this whole thing.” 

“Yeah, to help him.” He exclaims annoyed. “Not to make it worse.”

“Merlin, can’t you just bribe someone to show just the pictures of us that aren’t that scandalous or something?” 

“Bribe?” He asks shaking his head. “A scandal like that would win them more money I can bribe them with.” 

“Threaten them.” Malfoy says slowly. “Let just the publications who will use the most tame photographs run the story, however they want and threaten to sue them if they don’t , I don’t know in what grounds but my legal will handle that and most definitely run their pathetic business to the ground.” 

Ginny turns to look at him, he has a determined face, his jaw is set and his eyes are dark. She looks away at Zabini, the heat rising to her cheeks as her breath catches.

“That could work.” Zabini says and then he and Malfoy start talking about something she honestly doesn’t care about. 

She starts playing with the hem of her dress, moving it between her fingers as she lets their voices drift away while they talk business and legal issues and things she could understand if she tried but she doesn’t want to try. She just wants to take out all of her make up, take a long hot shower, get herself into her pajamas and just sleep for a week. 

She winces. Tomorrow is the weekly family lunch at the burrow she never misses it. She has never missed it at least, not even after she broke up with Harry, not after Ron and Hermione convinced him to start going again, there just has never been a good enough reason to miss out on spending time with her family, not when she was so close to losing them all. Not after they did miss someone. She looks at the blond man a few feet away from her, she is more than sure that every conversation tomorrow will revolve around him. And Harry will be there. 

She doesn’t wanna face that. And honestly she doesn’t have to, her brothers will all be assholes about it she is sure, they will be questioning all her decisions and no matter what versions comes out tomorrow in the gossip columns they will be lecturing her and criticizing her and she can already see Harry just sitting there not saying anything because why would he, it’s not like he cares anymore. She takes a deep shaky breath. She stops that train of thought, she can’t go there. 

“I’m going home, I’m too tired and angry at my brothers to be of any help and you are being to technical anyway.” She stands up and both her companions turn to look at her surprised and confused but she ignores them.” Send me an owl or something if I need to immediately be made aware of something. Good night.” 

She doesn’t really wait for them to answer anything back as she steps into the fireplace and then steps out into her apartment, feeling incredibly tired and heavy. She hurries to the shower and falls right back to bed not bothering to set up her alarm clock to wake up, feeling just a little guilty. 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Draco Malfoy doesn’t wake up early, he is not in the manor he doesn’t have to have breakfast with mother and he has no hurry to see how Blaise handled the incident from last night. It’s not as much that he trusts him is just that at this point he wants to forget completely about it. He can’t be feeling these things towards the weasel, just because she is an attractive woman and she has money now it doesn’t not mean she is anywhere near his level and he has to remember that. She is no one important to him. She will never be. At least not in that way. 

He sighs and frowns as he walks towards his living room to find it full of unknown owls, they are all fluttering around very loudly and he has no idea how he didn’t hear them before. 

He walks towards one and takes the letter from it’s leg, he can see the words Ron Weasley written in and he rolls his eyes but opens the letter anyway. He reads it quickly and dismisses the rest of the owls around his property he can guess they all say the same thing. 

He goes to fix himself something to eat and picks up the day’s prophet while he drinks his coffee. Blaise manage to fix this, even if the pic of the first page is not exactly tame it just shows Malfoy leaning in to kiss her and the story paints him as some sort of hero towards the rest of the Weasley clan that decided to violate their sister privacy, even Ginevra’s rage is painted as justified and he has no idea how that happened but he is glad he won’t have to sue anyone. 

He tries to focus on his food but he can’t, something is bothering him. Someone is. Weasel’s letter was full of rage, demanding him he makes his sister communicate with them and explain why she decided to miss their usual family hang out, he doesn’t think that requires much explanation, it all seems very clear to him why she would avoid them. Even if the fact that she is doing it sits very awkwardly on his stomach. It’s not guilt he knows it’s not his fault that her brothers where such idiots. It’s something else, something that he doesn’t take time to examine before he lets it move him to get himself dressed and apparate in front of Ginevra’s building. He goes up and knocks on her door a few times and he is completely not ready for what greets him. The redhead is wearing what seems to be nothing but an oversized Harpies’ shirt and blinks up at him with sleep still on her eyes. 

“What are you doing here?” She asks through a yawn and he walks inside without asking for permission or actually looking at her more than necessary.

“You brothers all seem very concerned about your whereabouts.” He informs. “And about the fact that no owl seemed to be able to reach you despite the fact that they all know where you live so they decided to bug me with that question.” 

“They are such dicks.” She mumbles rolling her eyes as she plops down in the couch hugging a pillow to her chest. For the first time he notices that she looks exhausted in a way that doesn’t seem fully physical. “I set up a ward so if anyone wanted to speak with me today they would have to actually come here, no owls, no floo, no nothing, but they are not dumb enough to come here soo…”

“Quite an impressive feat of magic.” He says honestly. 

“What?” She asks offended. “Just because I am a quidditch player I can’t be good at magic?”

“Relax, Ginevra.” He tells her actually amused. “I never said that I was complimenting you.”

“I’m sorry.” She says with a heavy sigh. “I’m just…” 

She trails off making a weird movement with her arm and something about the way she looks now, so completely different of how he is used to see her makes him unsettled. He doesn’t like it. 

“Go get dressed.” He tells her and she raises her eyebrows at him. “It’s lunch time and I’m hungry, we are going to get lunch.” 

“I’m not in the mood, Malfoy. “ 

“We’ll go somewhere close.” He tells her fully aware that all the options they have nearby are muggle establishments. She looks at him surprised and he just raises his eyebrows at her. She rolls her eyes and gets up to get dressed. He is so preoccupied with the fact that she didn’t even try to fight him that he doesn’t even check out her legs as she walks away. At least not that much.


End file.
